Lesson 3 - Lecture notes 3 PDF

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Spirituals

Fisk University Jubilee Hall

Spirituals have been an important aspect of African American religious music since the days of slavery. During the nineteenth century, these were called "negro spirituals," although today they are known as folk spirituals. Folk spirituals were unaccompanied because slaves were not allowed to have instruments, but people compensated by using handy objects (washboards, brooms) or their bodies (by stomping, patting, or clapping) to create instruments. Folk spirituals included call and response, and they were sung in a style called heterophony; that is, not everyone sang perfectly in unison, in time, or in harmony with each other. Imagine, for example, a room full of singers who sing the same basic melody but each person embellishes the melody in his or her own way, placing blue notes where he or she feels it is appropriate. The result is a multilayered rendition of the same song. Many slaves were Christian, having been converted during the Second Great Awakening, and they incorporated their knowledge of the Bible and Christianity into their music. Although slaves did encode messages

in the texts of the spirituals in order to communicate undetected around whites, they also sang them for the sole purpose of praise and worship. Soon after the Civil War ended, folklorists attempted to collect and preserve folk spirituals, afraid that the newly-freed slaves would assimilate into white culture and forget the spirituals. Collections such as Slave Songs of the United States (1867) contained musical transcriptions of spirituals that the folklorists heard.

University Logos

During the 1870s and 1880s, all-black universities were founded to educate young African American men and women. These historically black colleges and universities (or HBCUs) included a number of institutions that still exist today, such as Fisk University, Tuskegee University, Florida A&M University, and Lincoln University. The Fisk Jubilee Singers, the university choral group, had many members who were former slaves. Although their director, a white man named George White, originally trained the ensemble to sing classical European music, the singers eventually began performing spirituals in their concerts, as well. Audiences were fascinated by these arranged spirituals, and soon, the Fisk Jubilee Singers’ concerts included just as many spirituals as classical pieces. Unlike the folk spirituals, arranged spirituals were sung in the tradition of European concert music; that is, standing still, singing every note perfectly together, and with immaculate diction

and pronunciation. Although arranged spirituals retained the melodies and texts of their folk predecessors, they were sung in a much more subdued, classically-oriented performance style.

Jubilee Singers

The arranged spiritual repertory included choral numbers and solo art songs, and this music was performed either a cappella or with a piano accompaniment. Universities other than Fisk quickly began their own concert tours. For African American classical singers in the first part of the twentieth century, arranged spirituals were an essential part of their performance repertory. Singers such as Paul Robeson, Marian Anderson, and Roland Hayes all built performance careers in part on classical European repertory and in part on spirituals. Composers such as John W. Work III, Harry T. Burleigh, and Hall Johnson all wrote arrangements of spirituals. Even today, arranged spirituals are an essential part of the American choral and solo song tradition.

“I was always drawn to gospel music and the roots of African-American music. It's the foundation of rock and roll.” -Hozier

“Whether looking at pop music, hip-hop or R&B, it's rare to find an artist who hasn't been touched or affected by the power and soul of gospel music. In fact, many of today's popular artists such as Whitney Houston, John Legend, and Katy Perry started their careers in the church choir” -Marvin Sapp

"Louis Jordan's Tympani Five had 54 Top Ten R&B chart hits between 1942 and 1951, and eighteen of those made the top spot." All About Blues Music

Gospel Music

Charles Albert Tindley

During the Great Migration that occurred between the First and Second World Wars, many African Americans left the South and moved North in search of better work and quality of life. As people moved to new areas and sought new friends and community, churches became an essential part of many people’s lives. The soundtrack for these new churches, communities, and cities was gospel music. Gospel music differed from spirituals in several key ways. Gospel music was almost always performed with instrumental accompaniment. Early gospel music was accompanied by piano or organ, but over time, gospel music began to incorporate wind instruments, guitars and banjos, and drums. Second, gospel music borrowed characteristics from popular music and hymns, such

as verse-chorus form. Third, composers of gospel music purposely wrote melodies with the intention of people improvising, adding percussion from their bodies, crying out, or adding blue notes, all of which are common gestures in African American music, both sacred and secular. Fourth, gospel music drew from religious movements such as the Holiness-Pentecostal movement, which encouraged congregational participation and expression and eschewed polished performance styles. Like spirituals, however, gospel music continued to include call and response structures. Some of the earliest gospel music was composed by Charles Albert Tindley, a Methodist minister who composed songs that were designed to complement the topics of his sermons. Many of Tindley’s compositions are still sung today, such as "We Will Understand It Better By and By ♫" and "Stand By Me ♫," and many have been incorporated into the hymnals of different denominations, not just African American churches.

Thomas Dorsey

The father of traditional gospel music is Thomas A. Dorsey, who played organ in his father’s Baptist church as a child but also worked in a vaudeville theater. His exposure to secular music strongly influenced his compositions of sacred music. Like Tindley, Dorsey composed nearly all of his songs in verse-chorus form with plenty of call and response. Unlike Tindley, however, Dorsey inflected his music with harmonies, melodies, and rhythms that reflected his knowledge of blues and jazz idioms. Although not necessarily notated in the music, many gospel songs offer opportunities for a performer to sing a melisma, which is a single syllable of text that includes many different pitches. In performance, gospel music is also performed in heterophony with many variations of a single idea occurring at the same time. It is important to note that many notated gospel songs do not specify instrumentation or ornamentation, which leaves many options available for the performers.

Mahalia Jackson

Many church congregations initially rejected Dorsey’s music because of its audible links to secular music genres. As we will see in later lessons, some of the earliest examples of rock and roll came when singers such as Ray Charles adapted the lyrics of gospel songs to address secular topics. Dorsey formed an allegiance with gospel singer Mahalia Jackson to promote his music much in the way of Tin Pan Alley song pluggers: they would set up on a street corner, Jackson would sing the music, and Dorsey would sell sheet music to passersby with the hope that they would take the music to their churches. The plan worked—Dorsey’s music became so popular that during the 1940s and 1950s, all new gospel compositions were called "Dorseys." As gospel music gained popularity, churches began buying instruments that would allow them to perform this new type of music. "Precious Lord, Take My Hand ♫" (1932) is a one of Dorsey’s bestknown compositions (see Discover Music guide). The song took on a life of its own when sung by Mahalia Jackson. In fact, during the Civil Rights Movement, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. frequently invited Jackson to sing "Precious Lord, Take My Hand ♫," and she also performed it at King’s funeral. (Aretha Franklin sang "Precious Lord" at Jackson’s funeral a few years later.) The melody of "Precious Lord, Take My Hand ♫" is borrowed from a nineteenthcentury hymn by George Nelson Allen called "Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone ♫," but Dorsey’s incorporation of jazz and blues elements separate the two songs from each other.

“You can't separate modern jazz from rock or from rhythm and blues - you can't separate it. Because that's where it all started, and that's where it all come from - that's where I learned to keep rhythm - in church.” -Art Blakey

“I'm a big fan of gospel music, and you cannot be a fan of rock and roll, you cannot be a fan of country western music, and you can't really be a fan of jazz without listening to a lot of music that's religious.” -Penn Jillette

A style of Gospel known as "sacred steel" emerged after Hawaii became a US territory in 1898 and used the sound of a slide guitar. Library of Congress

Vocal Harmony Groups

Mills Brothers

Vocal harmony groups were popular both before and after World War II, singing a mixture of popular music, folk songs, and religious music. Their repertoire ranged from covers of Tin Pan Alley or Broadway tunes to the latest gospel songs to folk songs from the oral tradition. These groups usually had four singers. In the music, the singers would alternate which person sang the lead vocals, which allowed for many different combinations of vocal lines and harmonies. All of the singers had very wide registers, which they showed off by focusing on both the high and low ends of their ranges, both individually and within the group. The singers frequently imitated instrumental sounds and timbres as well. Early vocal harmony groups such as the Ink Spots and the Mills Brothers crossed racial boundaries because they recorded for major labels and performed in major performance venues. Although the groups sang a variety of repertoire, record labels focused on their poporiented numbers in order to appeal to the widest (and most racially

diverse)

audience.

After World War II, vocal harmony groups were often called "street corner groups" because their singing styles were heard on every street corner, park, gym, and apartment stoop in urban areas populated by African Americans. These postwar groups incorporated more adventurous vocal harmony, introducing increased amounts of harmonies borrowed from jazz and blues. They also experimented with the singers’ ranges and melodies: the Ravens often featured their bass singer as the lead, and the Orioles frequently switched the lead between their second tenor and baritone singers. Most of the songs were in verse-chorus form, and it was very common for the singers to use the final verse of the song to perform extremely intricate and complex vocal harmonies. These street corner groups frequently sang about topics that were close to the hearts of their young male members: adolescent aspirations and romantic difficulties.

Chords

The vocal harmony groups came to be known as doo-wop groups because they frequently added phrases such as "doo-doo-wop" and

"doo-doo-wah" to their songs. These vocables, or non-semantic syllables, helped provide a sense of rhythmic drive in songs that were otherwise slow and lyrical, and they also offered a standard lyrical phrase for the background singers. Another gesture adopted by doo-wop groups was called blow harmony, which was the name given to the sound created by blowing air and singing a oo-vowel at the same time, resulting in a sound similar to blowing across the top of an empty soda bottle. Doo-wopsyllables and blow harmony were standard features of the vocal harmony groups of this era, and they are the most recognizable features of doo-wop music. "Sh’boom ♫" by the Chords (1954) is an example of an uptempo doo-wop number, although just as many doo-wop songs were slow. During the initial verses, a solo singer performs the lyrics, supported by the syllables "sh’boom" that are sung by the other singers. During the final verse, the entire group comes together to sing in four-part harmony.

“I'm a big fan of gospel music, and you cannot be a fan of rock and roll, you cannot be a fan of country western music, and you can't really be a fan of jazz without listening to a lot of music that's religious.” -Penn Jillette

“Rock n' Roll came from the slaves singing gospel in the fields. Their lives were hell and they used music to lift out of it, to take them away. That's what rock n' roll should do take you to a better place.” -Meat Loaf

During the colonial period in North America, slaves' music-centered worship and gatherings were often banned for being too "idolotrous and wild" and had to be conducted in secret. Library of Congress

Early Rhythm and Blues

Louis Jordan

As we saw in Lesson 2, record labels used the term "race records" to describe music recorded by and marketed to African Americans. During the 1940s, "race" was gradually replaced by "rhythm and blues" until Billboard officially renamed the record charts in 1949. The term "rhythm and blues" was a catchall term that record companies used for African American music. They lumped together gospel, vocal harmony groups, and small combos that are now thought of as the earliest examples of true rhythm and blues music. Some of the earliest rhythm and blues performers had played in swing bands in the 1930s and 1940s. During and after World War II, the demand for large swing orchestras in enormous venues plummeted, and as a result, small combos increased in popularity. One of the first musicians to take advantage of this new opportunity was Louis Jordan. Sometimes called the "Father of Rhythm and Blues," Jordan and his group, the Tympany Five, recorded so extensively that everyone in the music business was familiar with his infectious shuffle rhythms. His million-seller "Is You Is, Or Is You Ain’t Ma Baby? ♫" in 1944 became a catchphrase. Songs such as "Saturday Night Fish Fry ♫" served as commentary on African American life and traditions. Throughout the 1940s, Jordan’s

records

consistently

occupied

the

race

records

charts.

Louis Jordan

Jordan treated African American folk traditions, language patterns, and cultural nuances in a humorous manner that endeared him to audiences of all races. Jordan’s showmanship, incorporation of slang, and humorous lyrics all contributed to his popularity. He and the Tympany Five played in a style called jump blues, which includes a 12-bar blues form, boogie woogie bass, shuffle rhythms, and group singing during the choruses. The boogie woogie bass line outlined chords in a very specific style and pattern. Shuffle rhythms, or a triplet quarter note followed by a triplet eighth note, were key to Jordan’s style. Jordan’s uptempo songs with their upbeat or novelty lyrics (such as "Let the Good Times Roll ♫," "Choo Choo Ch’ Boogie ♫," and "Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens ♫") helped listeners believe that they had reached the end of a terrible economic depression and a long, difficult war. "Choo Choo Ch’ Boogie ♫" (1946) is probably Jordan’s greatest hit.

The song was a crossover hit, occupying a place on both the rhythm and blues charts and the pop charts. It sold over two million copies. The song draws on several aspects of African American popular music in its form and style. The song is in verse-chorus form, and the lyrics of each verse take the form of the 12-bar blues. Solos by the saxophone and piano recall the solo passages from the swing era. The chorus lyrics of "choo choo ch’ boogie" illustrate the activities of the train-hopping hobo whose story is depicted in the verses.

“I'm a big fan of gospel music, and you cannot be a fan of rock and roll, you cannot be a fan of country western music, and you can't really be a fan of jazz without listening to a lot of music that's religious.” -Penn Jillette

“Whether looking at pop music, hip-hop or R&B, it's rare to find an artist who hasn't been touched or affected by the power and soul of gospel music. In fact, many of today's popular artists such as Whitney Houston, John Legend, and Katy Perry started their careers in the church choir”

-Marvin Sapp

A style of Gospel known as "sacred steel" emerged after Hawaii became a US territory in 1898 and used the sound of a slide guitar. Library of Congress

The Audience for Rhythm and Blues

Flyer distributed by the Citizens' Council of Greater New Orleans

Louis Jordan’s music appealed to both black and white audiences, but existing segregation practices meant that he often had to perform on two different evenings in the same city or venue: one performance for whites, and one performance for blacks. Even though African American music appealed to white audiences, that alone was not enough to eradicate the existence of segregation or racism. Although record companies thought of "rhythm and blues" as music by and for African Americans, during the 1940s and 1950s, white listeners became increasingly interested in this music. As white teenagers ventured into African American neighborhoods and record shops because the stores in their neighborhoods did not stock the music they wanted to hear. As a result, jukebox operators and retail outlets in white areas began to stock rhythm and blues records in order to satisfy the growing demand for that music among white consumers. This adoration of African American popular music was not universal among whites during the 1940s and early 1950s, certainly. A flyer distributed by the Citizens’ Council of Greater New Orleans (ca. 1950) reads, in part, "STOP. Help Save the Youth of America. DON’T BUY NEGRO RECORDS.... The screaming, idiotic words, and savage music of these records are undermining the morals of our white youth in America.... Don’t Let Your Children Buy, or Listen To These Negro Records." Clearly, the driving rhythms and rich harmonies of African American music that so appealed to young white people did more than just irritate their parents—the music terrified and infuriated them. As we will see in the following lessons, early rock and roll highlighted many difficult issues of race relations during the 1950s.

“I'm a big fan of gospel music, and you cannot be a fan of rock and roll, you cannot be a fan of country western music, and you can't really be a fan of jazz without listening to a lot of music that's religious.” -Penn Jillette

“I was always drawn to gospel music and the roots of African-American music. It's the foundation of rock and roll.” -Hozier

During the colonial period in North America, slaves' music-centered worship and gatherings were often banned for being too "idolotrous and wild" and had to be conducted in secret. Library of Congress

Conclusion Many types of African American music flourished in the first half of the twentieth century. Arranged spirituals were a respected form of art music, and gospel music, especially that by Thomas Dorsey, was a staple of many urban African American churches following the Great Migration. After World War II, bandleaders reduced the sizes of their ensembles to accommodate the decreased demand for swing bands, which led to the formation of the earliest style of rhythm and blues music. The intricate harmonies and variegated vocal textures of doo-wop groups captured the hearts and ears of both black and white listeners. Yet as African American music grew in diversity and popularity, many whites became nervous about the effect this music was having on "their" youth.

“Rock n' Roll came from the slaves singing gospel in the fields. Their lives were hell and they used music to lift out ...